Zak Crawley: England ‘need to stay positive’ despite defeat to India

Zak Crawley says England will not allow their shortcomings in India to derail their positive approach to Test cricket, but admits a bit of 'refinement' is needed to capitalize on their dominant positions, like the one which escaped in the fourth Test at Ranchi last month.

Speaking at the Kia Oval on the eve of the county season, Crawley insisted England never lost confidence in their attacking methods, despite being clearly second by the time the series went culminated with an innings defeat in three days at Dharamsala.

The 4-1 series scoreline, he added, could have been very different if England had seized their opportunity in Ranchi. Two days into the fourth Test, India were facing a deficit of over 100 first innings after slipping to 177 for 7 in reply to 353, only for Dhruv Jurel's hard-fought 90 to turn the tide and allow the spinners of his team to put the pressure back on England.

“We never really lost confidence and had the same attitude, as you can see in some of our media!” said Crawley, joking about some of the more outlandish expressions of optimism that came out of the England camp during the tour.

“We had the same attitude throughout and I don't think it was arrogance. We really believed in ourselves and thought we could win the series. We were there for every game. We certainly were not present when I was in India last time, so we gave ourselves a good chance and weren't clinical enough, like them, to be fair.

“We should have won in Ranchi to make it 2-2 and then you never know how the last one will go, but it's always difficult to get the momentum back. Over five days, their skills are always going to reveal themselves, and They “We are a phenomenal team. It was a really enjoyable tour, we had a good try and there's a lot to learn.”

On a personal level, Crawley was pleased with his own performances, having been England's top performer for the second consecutive major series, with 407 runs at 40.70 in the five Tests to accompany his 480 at 53.33 in the Ashes. Considering his struggles over the previous two years, during which he averaged 20.57 in 20 Tests between January 2021 and November 2022, this represented a significant increase in his fortune.

“Hopefully I can continue from here on out, but I definitely feel in a better place now than I did at the start of last year,” Crawley said. “Every time I try to maintain [my form]I think you're starting to get worse, so I'm always looking to improve.

“Against spin, I was trying to move forward to stifle the ball and it worked for me. My head is a lot further forward than it was in my setup. But mostly it's my attitude. I try Being more accepting of failure and accepting it is part of the game. So I try to stick with that.

Despite making four scores between 60 and 79, Crawley could not reach the heights he achieved with his remarkable 189 from 182 balls at Old Trafford during the Ashes. Nonetheless, he was part of seven opening stands of 45 or more in ten innings, as he and Ben Duckett constantly attacked India's new spinners, including their outstanding quick Jasprit Bumrah.

Crawley's confidence against the Indian seamers, particularly on the drive, continued a theme that began with his memorable first-ball four against Pat Cummins in the Ashes. And, consistent with his role as the leadoff hitter in an aggressive lineup, he admitted that taking on the leaders of the opposing offense was an integral part of his game plan.

“I was certainly aware of that in the summer against the Australians,” he said. “I just said to myself, 'there's some good balls here, I just need to put them under pressure from the start', so it was more of a conscious effort.

“I feel like a little more pace with the ball has always suited my game better,” he added. “I just think less when they play fast. You have to calm the brain, calm the mind and just react. That always appealed to me rather than the Tim Murtaghs of the world where you play seven different shots before the shot falls and has never been my strong point, but I'm going to try to improve in that area as well.”

Crawley revealed how he had laser surgery at the age of 18 to correct myopia which forced him to use contact lenses, adding that one of his training techniques when he was older young was to spin the bowling machine at full speed and play. the ball halfway down the field. “It was only half volleys, but obviously 90 mph would feel very slow by the time you were coming back,” he said.

Even so, the challenge of facing Bumrah, with his high pace, wide range of skills and idiosyncratic action, is not something that can be easily replicated in training.

“I love facing the best bowlers in the world. Him, Cummins and a few others, but he would probably be the best I've faced,” Crawley said. “He plays fast anyway and releases the shot later, so it seems even faster. Then it's just a weird action, so it's hard to understand sometimes and he has tremendous talent. He swings it in both ways, with a slower pace. -ball yorker, so yeah, he's a phenomenal bowler. It was tricky but I loved it.”

Although he stood out among England's batters, Crawley's series record still does not compare to that of his counterpart Yashasvi Jaiswal, whose 712 runs included back-to-back double centuries at Visakhapatnam and Rajkot. But, he says, these efforts have not necessarily made him hungrier for big scores, because his best cricket invariably comes when he restricts himself to one ball at a time.

“Whenever I look too far ahead like that, that’s how I immediately come out,” Crawley said. “Actually, a few times I was like, ‘I need to get a big score,’ and I wasn’t into the process. That’s why — simple as that — I walked out.

“At Old Trafford this summer I was just trying to hit and beat time, I didn't think I'd get a hundred. I was very present and it's quite difficult to get into that mindset. Every Once I'm in that state of mind, I managed to get a decent score, and if I got ahead, I didn't.”

England will not play another Test series until the West Indies arrive in July, and so the players will have plenty of time to absorb the lessons of the India series.

“It just needs a little refinement,” Crawley said. “We always talk about absorbing the pressure and putting it back. The last few years we've been pretty good at putting it back, and we've talked about maybe picking those moments to absorb at the right time as well. We We can definitely refine this as well.

“That doesn't mean we're going to become more negative. We're still going to try to play like we did and try to score quickly, but let's just pick the moments when they're on top. We have to make sure we stay positive. and let's not let a difficult result get in the way of what we've done really well over the last two years.

“[India] We've won 17 home series on the spin, so it would have to be pretty special for us to turn it over and we won't get too down on ourselves. We'll stick to what we know, but we'll be just slightly better.”